Main menu

Biffle goes 204.708 mph in Sprint Cup practice at Michigan

Greg Biffle paced practice at Michigan International Speedway with a speed of 204.708 mph, which is more than 10 mph faster than the official track qualifying record. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Move over, Ryan Newman.

Newman, who has owned the NASCAR Sprint Cup track record at Michigan International of 194.232 mph since 2005, is likely to see that record get blown away on Saturday. Greg Biffle continued a two-day long assault on the record with an incredible lap of 204.708 mph in the final practice session on Friday for Sunday's Quicken Loans 400.

Biffle was one of 14 drivers to top 200 mph in practice in Friday's final practice session. NASCAR has not had a 200 mph qualifying lap at any of its tracks since 1987 (203.827, Bill Elliott at Talladega).

"To be perfectly honest, I wish I could tell you that lap I was holding by breath and was on the edge, but it must have been a lot of adrenalin," Biffle said. "The car was really stuck to the ground really well. It wasn't that hard to drive."

The top five in that final practice session were Biffle, Marcos Ambrose (203.551), Kevin Harvick (202.954), Carl Edwards (202.943) and Paul Menard (201.737).

A total of 43 of 45 drivers in the final practice topped the official track record. The lone drivers outside that group were Ken Schrader (192.318) and Tony Raines (191.494).

"It was a little bit of a shock to realize we were really going that fast," Edwards said. "I told somebody that when they did the repave, they didn't have to make the track smaller. We were going so fast that it feels like a smaller race track. It doesn't feel like a two-mile race track. It's just amazing how fast we are going.

"To me, that is kind of uncharted territory to be going that fast."

Mike Pryson
- Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and M-Live Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek as online motorsports editor In 2012.
See more by this author»